Automatic regulation of timepieces



Feb. 20, 1951 J. RABINOW 2,542,430

AUTOMATIC REGULATION OF TIMEPIECES Filed March 18, 1948 Patented Feb. 20, 1951,

UN ITED S TATES PAT'EN T OF F JI'CLE AUTOMATIC "RE.(l'ULA'II'ON F TIMEPIE GES JacobiBabinow, Takoma; .Park, :Md.

. Application? March.18, 1948,.i'Seiial'N0. 15553 timesetting opeartion'rshall alsoeffectthe regulating. operation; and some prior'attempts have yrequire'din addition thatthesetting be performed at a certain time, e g, exactlyr'on thehouror at a .certainhour. These aforementioned. attempts have the great defectofrequiring both a special mental'effort an'd aphysicalact on'therpart of the .user of .the timepiece, :and experience has shown that they averageperson willconsider such ac'ts'too. much trouble to. performconSistently.

Itis an objector my invention torequire no judgment on the part of gthe userinl keepinghis timepiece .properly ,regulated, and only the 1' irreducible minimum action of occasionallysetting "the hands of the timepiece. to the..correct.time, if, due to the well known perversity .oimechanisms, it should manage to .strayeven slightlyjirom..the desirable ideal of. perfect time-keeping.

. .i Furthermore, if. thetimepiece. has run; downor,

'because jof a change time zone..or for any fother reason .it becomes necessary .to .make a drastic manual Echange in lthe setting .of the hands under conditions which. do .not. necessarily iimply inaccurate or incorrect regulation of .the timepiece, it .isanobject vof..my.invention, under such Circumstances,..to.automatically. disablezand render .fine'fiective any automatic .regulating means, so. as to. reducewthe. likelihoodcof introducing an incorrect changedn the regulation, .and this, 'too, is accomplished without-thought and without any extra .efliort .onattention .on..-the- .part of theuser.

.It is also anobject '.to-,pr.ovide the..above..a d-

. vantages withaminimum otstructuraand with substantially. no changesin .theconventional conl n. adjustment pr .manipulationq-of .-timepieces, other. thanthe addition: of .ai'few simple elements.

f With the above and 'zother whiects .in' view, which {will ab ecome apparent :as :this description .proceedsg myginvention .aconsists in .wcertain "gea- 2 -tures of -construction, combination and arranement of parts *and functions-which willbe de- ."scribed more fully below by way of example "onlywith-particular reference to the drawings,

15 in which:

Fig. '1' is arear elevation of clock, such as" an ordinaryalarm clock, which is to be modified-in accordance with my invention.

Fi 2 is-"a "rear elevation of the 'clock'after be- :310 ing modi'fiedby the additional elements com- ;prising my invention.

-Fig.' 3"is a sectional view taken along line 3'i3 of Figfi2.

Fig. 14 is:a 'view 'takenalongline 44 .of 'Eig." 2. "Figfi5 isa sectional view of'a.'modification.; of 'thesetting'knob 9 shown in Fig. "3.

Fig. 6 is-asectionalwiew of anothenmodification .of knob 9.

. Figure 'Tisran: enlarged fragmentary view show- "ing'thedetails of the crown gear and theactuat- Fig. .1 depicts .ithe back of an ordinaryalarm zclock contained in .case.| to which, by way of example, I shall. show my invention applied, .although it.is. obviouslyequally applicable to other jtypesof'timepieces such as watches. The usual center setting stem2, is ordinarily in such clocks ,"provided with a knurled nut enabling manual ro- "tation o'fthe stem '2 to set the hands of theclock 0 "in the conventional'fashion. For a purposelhereinafter disclosed, vI replace the conventional lknurle'dnut with a-gear.3,i.t'he uppere'dges .of v.whoseteeth aresharpened near the outercircum'ference of thegear, as shown at.4,'to enable .itsLteeth-to engage more readily. withthe similarly .-.shar.pened;teeth..of gear-.15 when .the latteris dezpressedi into engagementwith gear .3 .as willflbe jlater described.

The. clock .win'ding stem .6 is usually provided with a..keyl enabling the. clock. to be conveniently wound. I.ext;nd this stem -6 by the additioniof :.-stem.1. Pin-18 passes-.through-and is fixed to the winding-stem T. :About stem] is fitted atknob 9 having a bore l0 which-fits 'onstem butper- Lmits ready. relative slidingor rotating motion-:be-

tween'eknob and stem. The projecting .ends of pin'8 engagetwo. recesses H in knob 9 torestrain .-.the.-knob against both upward movement and-rotation relative -..to stem :1 .in 'the position shown in-Fig. $3, :"the knob ;being..held in .the position ShQWIYbZV the-:click mechanism consisting-of the :aball .l-2iand"theispring 1.3. The bal1.l2:.'fits:.into :a'nnular grooved- 4 thus holding' the sleeve in"the :positionshown. Thus, in the position shownfin I to wind the clock in the usual fashion. The knob 9 may be knurled to facilitate winding, or may be provided with a key or bow for additional leverage if the force of the winding spring requires it, or may have both.

If the knob is depressed, a click will first be felt as the detent moves out of groove [4. Further depression will cause gear 5 to engage setting gear 3. When the two gears are fully engaged, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3, ball l2 will fall into groove IS with a second click, which will help to define the setting position, although the detent need not necessarily be made sufficiently strong to hold the knob in the lower position, or it may be so made, if desired, like the stem of an ordinary watch. In this lower position knob 9 is disengaged from winding stem I and is engaged with the setting stem 2 since pin 8 is free to revolve in the cavity 17 in the knob 9; and in this lower position the knob 9 also actuates an automatic regulating mechanism which will be described below.

A friction washer l8 loosely fits reduced portion l9 of stem 1 and is fixed to control disc 29 which is also loosely disposed about reduced por tion l9 and rests lightly on spring washer 21. Control disc 29 has a projection 22 provided with a pin 23 by which this disc is normally held by springs 24 and 25 in a center position between the two springs as located by the two stops 26 and 21; the far ends of the springs are fixed to the back of clock I. In the upper position of knob 9, rotation of the knob 9 (and stem 1) does not afiect the above described group of loose washer-like members, and particularly does not affect control disc 29 which is held in its normal central position by springs 24 and 25.

When knob 9 is depressed into its lower position, the bottom of the knob engages friction washer l8, and force is transmitted through the stacked members [8 and 20, flattening spring washer 21 and depressing control disc 29, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3. If knob 9 is now rotated, washer l8 provides suflicient friction between the bottom of kob 9 and the top of control disc 20 so that the control disc rotates with the knob 9 against the centering force of spring system 24, 25. The springs are very lightly loaded, as their only function is to center the control disc when there is no force on it, i. e., when knob 9 is in the upper position. Note that projection 22, if sufficiently displaced from its initial angular position, will ride up on one of catches 28 or 29 (depending on the direction of displacement) until it falls behind the struckup portion of the catch and is retained thereby between the catch and one of stops 30 or 3| against return to its original center position until knob 9 is released into its original position; at such time, spring washer 2| moves control disc 20 up to its original position so that projection 22 is raised above catch 28 or 29, and no force being now exerted by knob 9, control disc 29 is rotated back into its original position by the action of springs 24 and 25.

Integral with the control disc 20 which is made ii of thin flexible material is pawl 32, having a sharpened edge 33. In the initial position of Figs. 2 and 3 pawl 32 rests with edge 33 barely inside of, and slightly above the axis of, crown gear 34, which is provided with very fine teeth 35 arranged as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The ma"- terial of disc 29 is suiiiciently flexible to permit pawl 32 to pass freely between teeth 35 when control disc 20 is rotated by knob 9 (this, of course, can happen only when disc 20 and knob 9 are in the lower position) if the pawl is resting on teeth of the crown gear when the knob is subsequently released into the upper position, the pawl 32 will engage one of the teeth and carry it into the upper position underjthe force of spring washer 21 and so will rotate crown gear 34 with it a small fraction of a turn. After this has happened, the knob 9 separates from control disc 20, which rotates, as above described, back into its initial position.

Crown gear 34 drives the rate regulator 38 through a gear train shown as consisting of worm gear 31 fixed to the crown gear 34 and driving idler gear 38 which in turn drives gear sector 39 which actuates the regulator 33 by means of two fingers 40 and 4 I.

For certain applications it may be desirable not to use the two position click mechanism just described. Instead, the arrangement shown in Fig. 5 may be used. Here the knob 42 is arranged to slide along stem I as in Fig. 3 but in place of the click mechanism, spring 43 is provided inside the knob 42. A washer 44 rests on the ends of the pin 8 and the compression spring 43 is held between this washer 44 and the cover plate 45 of the knob 42. This spring 43 acts at all times to keep the knob in the position shown in Fig. 5 and the ends of pin 8 in the recesses II. For winding the timepiece it is merely necessary to turn the knob 42. knob is depressed against the force of the spring 43 until the gears 3 and 4 are fully meshed. This disconnects the knob 42 from the stem 1 as previously described. The spring 43 is made very weak so that a very mild manual force is required to slide the knob 42 along the stem 1.

It will thus be ssen that with knob 9 in the initial or raised position, it can be used to wind the timepiece in the usual manner. By depressing knob 9 into its lower position, rotation thereof will set the hands of the timepiece through setting stem 2, and at the same time control disc 20 with pawl 32 will be first depressed, then rotated in one direction or the other, depending on whether the hands are to be set ahead or set back. Since the pawl can move between the teeth of crown gear 34, this gear is not affected by such rotation of the pawls. Replacing knob 9 to its initial position at the end of the setting operation will now, under certain conditions, cause a small correction in the regulation of the watch to be made, and the gear train 31, 38, and 39 is so arranged that this correction is in the proper direction. That is to say, if the timepiece was running fast, and should therefore be set back, the regulator will be altered in the proper direction to make the timepiece run more slowly thereafter, and vice versa. Note that the amount of this correction is very small, corresponding to a very fine adjustment of the running rate; no attempt is made to make a full correction or a correction proportional to the magnitude of the error, a's'has been done in previous regulators. My reasons for doing this are explained below.

As far as I know all previous attempts at automatic regulation of watches employed proportional corrections, that is, the corrections in the rate occurring during any one single operation of the mechanism were greater or less as the correction in the indicated time was greater or less. While at first thought this would appear desirable, more careful consideration brings forth the fact that such proportional control is valueless unless the time elapsed from the last previous correction is a function of the correction. The

For setting the hands the guano.

reason. for: this is as follows.- Suppose:- a watch: shows the correct time at a certain date. monthlater it' is found that the watch hasg'ained twominutesand its-hands are'moved' back to the correct time. In all of thepreviously known devicesoi the type being considered here, this results' in: a finite change in the rate of the watch. Supposefurther thatthis is the exactlamount of change necessary to completely correct: the: rate of! the watch. Ifthis same watch had been first two minutes after running for, say, six: months, the same correction of rate accomplished by'moving the. hands back two minutes would be incorrect' by a large amountsince thecorrection required would be only one-sixth. of that"v in. the previous? case. This difiiculty can be. overcome by designing a special mechanism into thertimee piece that automatically changes the. rate correction; depending on the elapsed time from; the last previous; correction, but such: devices would be complicated, costly, and. in View of: my invention, unnecessary;

The fixed: correction. described previously will bemade only if pawl 32 has not been rotated so far: that. it passes entirely through and beyond the teeth. of the crown gear 34= into the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2. Such extreme motion will correspond to a certain predetermined setting of the' timepiece hands, which may be made to be;. for examplatenminutes in the case; of. an inexpensive timepiece. When; control disc 20' has been. once moved into such. extreme posi-- tion; it will be retained there as previouslyex-- plained, by catch 28 or 29 acting on.- projection 22, and will remain in that positionuntil the setting operation is finished and knob 39- returned to; its: upper position. The knob 9,. whiledepressed, canbe'rotatedany desired amount; after disc- 20: is latched into. its extreme position there will simply be frictional slippage between the knob 9 and washer l8' as the knob continues its rotation. Stop 30- or 3| restrains the disc 2!)- against further rotation. and also prevents the.- light springs 24 and 25 from being overstrained by such-rotation. After this hasoccurred, when knob 9 is released, pawl132 rises, but as it is not now in engagement with crown gear 34 the pawl moves back into its initial position after it. has risen, and the regulation is-notaltered.

When manual adjustment of the rate is desired,v

this can be accomplished by rotating crowngear 3.4, which may be knurledfor this purpose, if desired, and may also be provided with. a spring frictionbrake 46 to hold the crown. gear wherever lasttpositioned.

The-above described construction. accomplishes the objects of my invention, aswill be-expla-ined;

more. fully below..

First, it will be seen that I have providedfor a,

small, constant. correction. to. be. made whenever the. hands arev set, provided. the timepiece has. not gained. or lost more than a predeterminedamouhtJsincethelast setting; 1 In the case of a. good and well-made timepiece, this amount should. be. no morethan, for. example, five minutes. Since the timepiece will normally beset atrare inter vals, or. at the most, every two or three. days, a

ormore subsequent; settings will inevitably-ulna mately bring the; timepiece to the; best: rate; of. which it is capable.

Itis. important to pointout' that" backlashxin. the gearingbetween the crown gear and the: rate regulator may be advantageous in two. ways. Consider first the application of my invention to a very fine timepiece. Suppose the pieceis-rum ning slow. and. several settin operations are performed in succession in one direction. The: back.-. lash of the gears is then taken out and the-rate. finally brought to nearly the correct. value. The. nextsetting should theoretically be overcompemsati-ng, unless it was exactl enough to regulate 1 the watch perfectly, which is most unlikely.

The setting following this should be in the re-- verse direction. If: the backlash is deliberately so: proportioned that half of a reverse" setting of the crown gear is taken up in the backlash; this last correction will have only half the normal: effect and should bring the regulationevennearer' to the optimum than any of the full steps.

In the case that it .is not desired to control theamountof backlash, its presence will have no efiectexcept to require one or two additional settings to efiect the movement of the rate regulator; Aconsistent rate error. would be thus eliminated. I would like to point out further that it may be desirable to deliberately introduce: some play; or backlash, into the gear system so. that timezone changes durin travel should cause no changein rate and so that only; several successive corrections of the: time piece in one direction would produce.changesiinrate;

In any case,. by using. spring loaded; gears;v backlash can be. entirely eliminated, if. thatv is desired.

If. the ;timepiece shown in my drawings has been allowed to run down. and stop completely,v or when changing from. one time zone to. another, or when for. any other reason a. large change inthe setting of the hands. is necessary, this usually has no bearing on' the: accuracy of the timepiece, and I therefore provide means, as described, for completely disabling the auto.- matic regulator in this event. Note that. once the hands have been turned beyondthe-predetermined amount and the control disc. 20 is held in its extrime position, further manipulation of the hands has no effect on the regulation until the knob 9 is moved back to the initial position.

Since theentire operation corresponds closely to the usual and normal way of setting a watch, in which the stem is manipulated. from the wind position. to the set position, the. ordi.-. nary habitual manner in which people set' watchesisall that is nccessary forthe 13101381101)? eration of my invention.

The disabling feature. described in the pre-l' ceding paragraph may not be necessary in. the case of the most-inexpensive-timepieces such as cheap clocks where] frequent some changes are unlikely, or where a" single small rate correctionv can be overlooked. Anaccidental correction such as caus'td by the setting resulting from failure to wind the clock would be eliminateds'by:

not accomplish the full necessary-correction, one

a subsequ'ent-correction. To eliminate this dis-- abling feature. the bent-up detents 2'8 and. 29.: need not be. provided.

The operation of my automatic regulator need:

"" not. beconfined solely to those timepieces. where.

the setting knob is also used' for winding thetims piece. The principle of my invention. can be applied. equally well to those timepieces wherethe winding is performed by a separate mecha-' nism entirely. A modification-of myinventiol'i' for such application is shown in Fig; 6. wher 'the.

stem carrying the: setting knob A2 is amember- 41 rigidly attached to the clock case I. The operation of, the automatic regulation is exactly identicalv to that previously described. The winding'of the clock in this case is performed by a separate shaft and has no bearing on my invention.

i It will be apparent that my invention is equally applicable to Watches as well as to the clock shown or to any other type of timepiece having rate adjusting means. In the case of a watch it would obviously be preferable to retain the usual relation of wind and set positions of the stem rather than the one shown; that is, the depressed or low position of the watch stem is usually the wind position, and the stemmust generally be clicked into the elevated; or upper position to set the watch. The exact arrangement' of clutch and gearing to accomplish this depends somewhat on the watch mechanism employed, and will not be described here, as it is considered to involve only mechanical skill to broadly adapt my invention to the structure of any known timepiece, using the principles described above, and I therefore wish it to be understood that I do not consider my invention to be confined to the structural details shown, but I intend its scope to be indicated by the accompanying claims.

I claim: 1: A timepiece comprising time indicating means, control means for setting same to a desired value, rate regulating means for increasing and decreasing the running rate of the timepiece, adjusting means operably connected between the above control means and rate regulating means to' change the adjustment of the said rate regulating means whenever said control means are operated; said change in adjustm nt being in a direction dependent upon the direction of the difference between the original reading of the said time indicating means and the subsequent reading to which the time indicating means are set, said adjusting means including means arranged to cause the said changes in the adjustment of said regulating means to be of a pre determined fixed amount.

, 2. The device described in claim 1 further including means operably connected to said control means, arranged and constructed to disable said adjusting means whenever said difference exceeds a predetermined amount.

13. "timipiece comprising time indicating means, setting means for setting same to any desired time indication, regulator means for increasing and decreasing the running rate of the timepiece, adjusting mechanism operably con'- nected between said setting means and the said regulator mechanism, said adjusting, mechanism arranged and constructed, upon-normal oper'ae tion of said setting means to change the SL1}- ting of the time indicating means, to vary by a; predetermined fixed amount the adjustment ofthe said regulator means in a direction determined solely by the direction of the difference between the initial reading or the time indicating means and the final reading after said setting operation is completed, said direction being such as to reduce the regulation error of the disable said adjusting mechanism-whenever said; difference exceeds a predetermined amount.

' 5. A- spring driven timepiece comprisingitimc; indicating means, rate regulating means settable in'one direction to increase the rate'and in the. opposite direction to decrease the rate of-the timepiece, control means movable into each '01: two positions and operable normally while in one of said positions to set the time indicating means; and adjustin means constructed and arranged to be actuated by the movement of said control means from said one-position to the other posi'-' tion, said adjusting means further arranged to; move said rate regulating means by a predeter-t mined fixed amount in a direction controlled by. the direction of setting of the time indicating means.

6. Thetimepiece as described in claim 5 fur ther in'cludin'gmeans operably connected to said control means to automatically disable said adjusting means whenever said control means changes the setting of the time indicating means by more than a predetermined amount.

7. A timepiece comprising time indicating means, rate regulating means, settable in one direction to increase the rate and in the opposite direction to decrease the rate, control means hav-' ing two positions and operable in one of said positions for setting the time indicating means, adjusting means actuated by movement of said control means from said one position to the other of said positions for moving said rate regulating" means by a predetermined fixed amount in a direction controlled by the direction of setting of the time indicating means.

8. A timepiece comprising time indicating means, rate regulator mechanism for increasing and decreasing the running rate of the timepiece, a rotatable setting member for setting the position of said time indicating means either ahead or back at will, mechanical means connected between said setting member and said regulating means arranged and constructed to operate said regulating means toward rate correction whenever said member is rotated to correct the reading of said time indicating means, and means operably connected to the rotatable setting member whereby said mechanical connecting means moves said rate regulatin means by a predeter mned fixed amount during each said setting of the position of said time indicating means.

9. The timepiece as described in claim 8 fur ther including means operably connected to said rotatable settin member and also tosaid me chanical connecting means for rendering ineilec tive said mechanical connecting means whenever the time indicating means are moved by said rotatable member more than a predetermined amount. 7

10. A spring driventi rnepiece, comprising indicating means, rate regulatin means include ing a movable adjustng member manually oper ated means having different positions for winding the said spring and for setting the timeindicating means, cooperating meansbetween said manually operated means and said rate regulating means whereby the rate of the timepiece is alf tered by a fixed amount during motion of said: manually operated means from the setting posit-f tion to the winding position, means for condition? ing of said cooperating means bymovementoi, said manually operated means from the winding to the setting position for subsequent movement of said adjusting member, and means for moving said adjusting member by a fixed amount to efiect' said rate alteration, said last means being actuated by said motion of said manually operated means from the setting to the winding position.

11. In the timepiece as set forth in claim 10, disabling means cooperatively connected to the said manually operated means and arranged and constructed to prevent the said cooperating means from affecting the rate of the timepiece when the position of the said indicating means is changed by more than a predetermined amount.

12. A timepiece comprising time indicating means; rate regulating means movable in either of two directions to respectively increase or decrease the running ate of the timepiece; manipulatable means for setting said time indicating means to any desired time value, said setting means including a control element having a normal non-setting position and a setting position in which the timepiece is being set; a mechanical cooperating linkage between said setting means and said rate regulating means constructed and arranged to move said rate regulating means by a single fixed distance each time said linkage is operated; clutch means engageable by motion of said control element from non-setting to setting position to control operation of said linkage; said linkage being operated by motion of said control element from said setting to said non-setting position, the direction of motion of said rate regulating means being such as to increase the running rate of the timepiece when said indicating means are moved forward and vice versa.

13. The timepiece as described in claim 8 wherein the said mechanical cooperating linkage further includes means for disengaging said linkage upon manipulation of said setting means to change the time indication by more than a predetermined amount.

14. A timepiece comprising time indicating means, control means for setting same to a de sired value, rate regulating means for increasing and decreasing the running rate of the timepiece, adjusting means operably connected between the above control means and rate regulating means to change the adjustment of the said rate regulating means whenever said control means are operated; said change in adjustment being in a direction dependent upon the direction of the difference between the original reading of the said time indicating means and the subsequent reading to which the time indicating means are set, and means, operably connected to said control means, arranged and constructed to disable said adjusting means Whenever said difference exceeds a predetermined amount.

JACOB RABINOW.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 721,361 Engwall Feb. 24, 1903 731,819 Sibley June 23, 1903 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 6,444 Switzerland Apr. 21, 1893 19,578 Great Britain of 1897 

